Vucic Seeks from the US To Grant Operating License to Oil Company NIS

Aleksandar Vucic (BETAPHOTO/MILAN ILIC)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Nov. 25 sought from the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the administration in Washington to within next 48 hours issue an operating license for oil and gas company Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) for a period of 50 days, so that the company could continue its work until Russia sold its controlling stake. 

In a special address, Vucic said that unless the US granted an operating license to NIS, secondary sanctions would follow, which, according to him, would pose insurmountable problems. “As of next Monday, all banks will stop doing business with NIS. Now, after my promise to them, I think there is a fifty-fifty chance of getting an operating license,” Vucic said.

Noting that the NIS oil refinery in Pancevo had been placed on a so-called hot standby, Vucic said that it “will shut down in four days if the US does not grant the license.” The next problem is posed by a shutdown of Russian oil company Lukoil in Serbia, slated for early December, which would lead to closing down of some 120 petrol stations in the country. 

The Serbian president added that fuel prices would go up, because NIS was the largest supplier of smaller petrol stations. Vucic also said he had talked with companies OMV and Mol about future supplies, as well as with company ECO, which has a refinery in North Macedonia and should provide supplies to the south of Serbia.

Vucic stressed that Serbia had done everything in its power to help the Russian investor in NIS to stay in Serbia and not cause any problems to the company. He added that Serbia had the opportunity to exercise its pre-emption rights on four occasions, three of which this year, when the ownership structure in NIS changed, but had never used its rights.